Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance, National Office HQ

DBSA believes that education is often the first step toward understanding a diagnosis and creating a path to wellness. Therefore, we provide people with mood disorders a wide variety of tools and resources that not only inform but also provide a means for people to help themselves. These materials have been developed in careful partnership with healthcare providers, peers and their loved ones, ensuring that these resources are both useful and clinically relevant. Many who use our materials have nowhere else to turn—they either cannot afford ongoing mental health care or there are few clinicians in their areas. Accordingly, our resources are all free of charge, with many online so they may be used 24/7.
DBSA’s array of customizable wellness tools are housed within our Facing Us Clubhouse at FacingUs.org. The Clubhouse is an online community where users can not only track their health trends, but also get creative, share tips, create wellness plans, and provide or receive support. Our most popular tool is the Wellness Tracker, which was named a Top Bipolar App of 2015 by Healthline. It allows users to track physical and emotional/mental wellness for their own information in a format that can be easily shared with mental health care providers. Additional tools in the Clubhouse include workbooks, checklists, information sheets, and other resources that address such areas as symptoms, medications, advance directives, triggers, suicide prevention, and wellness.

DBSA also provides an array of informational materials on a wide range of topics for people living with mood disorders, their families and friends. Resources include more than three dozen educational brochures; podcasts featuring some of the nation's leading experts on mental health; an eNewsletter which includes the Life Unlimited feature, cited by Healthline as one of its Best Bipolar Disorder Blogs of 2016; videos; educational webinars; an online course Living Successfully with a Mood Disorder; and informational lists comprising mental health organizations, federal agencies, and other information.

DBSA creates and promotes messages, structures, and practices that advance mental health, personal choice, and wellness. Building on a long history of championing personal advocacy, we also advocate with peers at the forefront of determining needs and best practices in mental health for people with depression and bipolar disorder. We support both policy and media-related advocacy at national and state levels, ensuring a place for the needs and concerns of peers in policy, service delivery, and treatment decisions. DBSA is a member of the Mental Health Liaison Group, American Brain Coalition, and the Advocacy Committee of the International Society on Bipolar Disorders.

For the past several years, DBSA staffers have been invited speakers at high-level conferences and meetings, demonstrating our growing influence. Members of the DBSA staff have been heard at the White House summit Making Healthcare Matter; the annual National Council for Behavioral Health Hill Day in Washington DC; the Rosalynn Carter Symposium on Mental Health Policy; and a Congressional briefing on Veteran peer support.

Wellness involves your whole health—emotional and mental, as well as physical. The DBSA Wellness Tracker is a free, innovative, and user-friendly online tool that allows you to keep track of your emotional, mental, and physical health.